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A CHRISTIAN 
NATION? 


REV. A. J. MARTIN 


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ARE WE A CHRISTIAN 
NATION? 





ARE WE A 
CHRISTIAN 
NATION? 


By REV. A. J..MARTIN 


NASHVILLE, TENN. 


COKESBURY PRESS 
1925 


, ~ DEC 9 125 


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COPYRIGHT, 1925 
BY 
LAMAR & BARTON 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


CONTENTS 


I Page 

Our Nation’s Greatest Need............... 9 
II 

Politics and: Patriotism 29 eo ee i eas 21 
III 

Christianity and Civilization.............. 35 
IV 

The United States Must Lead the World 

toward Permanent Peace................ 45 
V 

PAIVIOTICR A ELC DE ote tats rae teak Gites Milk dace 55 
VI 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
‘in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/arewechristianna0Omart 


OUR NATION’S GREATEST NEED 










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I 
OUR NATION’S GREATEST NEED 


HE greatest need of the American 
nation to-day is godly homes— 
homes where the Bible is studied 

and where God is reverenced. Jesus 
Christ should be the invited, though un- 
seen, guest of every home. | 
“The way to make a home what it 
should be, first of all, is for the home maker 
to be that in himself. If the home is to 
be pure in its life, strong in its purpose, 
orderly in its arrangements, rhythmic in 
its habit, restful in its spirit, inspiring in 
its uplift, the dominating personality of 
the home must be all of that himself.” 
Dr. Charles M. Sheldon, the well-known 


author and editor, says: “A nation is no 
stronger than its homes.’”’ Then he tells 


the story of a minister who announced 


10 Are We a Christian Nation? 


to his congregation that he was going to 
visit among his parishioners every night 
during the coming week. His results were 
interesting. At the church on the follow- 
ing Sunday he said: “‘I made twenty calls 
on twenty different families last week, 
calling in the evening. At seven of the 
homes there was no one in. At four I 
found a man and his wife together; they 
were elderly people. At three homes I 
found a part of a family group together, 
including very young children. At only 
one home of the twenty did I find an entire 
family together enjoying the evening as a 
family.” 

The fireside is a seminary of infinite 
importance. Only a few can obtain the 
honors of a college, but all are graduates 
of the home. The learning of the univer- 
sity may fade from recollection, its classic 
lore may molder in the halls of memory; 
but the simple lessons of home enameled 
upon the heart of childhood defy the rust 


Our Nation’s Greatest Need 11 


of years and outlive the more mature but 
less vivid pictures of after years. 

Home, sweet home, graced with pictures, 
refined with books and gladdened with 
song, is the place where children are 
trained to become useful citizens of the 
government and loyal citizens of the king- 
dom of heaven, where the members of the 
household are to be gathered one by one. 
If God is given first place in the home, then 
it will become the nursery of the Church 
and the symbol of the fellowship of 
heaven. 

“Fathers and mothers, your religion is 
defective. We must erect family altars, 
read and study God’s Word, live clean and 
pure lives before our children, have them 
regularly at Sunday school and Church, 
educate them in Christian colleges where 
God’s Word is a regular part of the 
curriculum, have them baptized, let them 
grow up in pure, clean society and read 
good books.” 


12 Are We a Christian Nation? 


Statistics tell us that there are in one 
of our great States 883,390 persons (about 
one-third of the population) under twenty- 
five years of age who have no religious 
instruction at home, nor have they ever 
attended any Sunday school. And educa- 
tors tell us that those of this number who 
enter college have blunted or hardened 
moral natures, making it difficult to inter- 
est them in religious subjects. 

The Christian home is the best character 
builder. Character is a man’s most valu- 
able asset. When every other item of his 
capital has failed to be remunerative, his 
character will be found productive. 


‘“When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; 

When health is lost, something is lost; 
When character is lost, all is lost.” 

People with clean records are wanted. 
A man was wanted to fill an important 
position. Several men applied, and among 
them was one man of “‘special interest.” 
This man was spotted by a detective to 


Our Nation’s Greatest Need 13 


see where he spent his evenings and Sun- 
days. His educational record was in- 
vestigated, even back to his common 
school training. His achievements in the 
line of his work were carefully examined, 
his personal habits learned; and when it 
was found that he was diligent, honest, 
clean, earnest, sociable, capable, he was 
accepted. But all his past life had been 
considered. 

While we are making money, gaining 
an education, expending energy, we are 
also constructing character. Let it be a 
solid character. Character is that inde- 
finable something that distinguishes a man 
from his fellows. Reputation is what the 
world gives a man; character is what he 
gives himself. 

Circumstances may make men, but cir- 
cumstances never made a man out of un- 
prepared material. 

It is said of Alexander of Russia that his 
character was equal to a constitution. 


14 Are We a Christian Nation? 


Character must always be the “‘main de- 
pendance” of a successful man. Char- 
acter stands for all that this smaictrnt 
manding century wants. 

When Dr. Fulton was inaugurated as 
president of Harvard College he said: 
“The all-important question is, Does the 
training of Harvard rear up a race of high- 
minded citizens? If not, let these walls 
crumble to the earth, let yonder noble 
library be scattered or burned by invading 
barbarians, let yonder museum, which 
now contains an organic world, be leveled 
to the ground, brick by brick.” 

You may stone character, as Stephen 
was stoned; you may thrust it into the 
lions’ den, as Daniel was thrust; you may 
place it in the stocks, as Paul was placed; 
but it will keep its treasure secure and 
bring it forth as capital for the future, to be 
honored of God and man! 

Due to an accumulation of mud, sticks, 
stones, etc., picked up in its course and 


Our Nation’s Greatest Need 15 


deposited at its mouth, the Mississippi 
River is gradually extending its mouth 
out into the Gulf of Mexico. In time it 
will be possible to build lighthouses or 
other structures on the land reclaimed 
from the Gulf—land built up by minute 
particles that stuck for a common purpose. 

There is much building and reclaiming 
to be done in this country, and the ac- 
complishment of desired ends will require 
united efforts on the part of parents to 
maintain real Christian homes for ideal — 
citizenship. 

The home as a Christian education 
agency counts vastly more than all other 
agencies combined. Men and women of 
high Christian character, with very few 
exceptions, if any, consider the influence of 
Christian homes to be the greatest factor 
in moral and religious training. 

Most of the eminent Church workers 
have had their first start toward God in 
the home. The great majority of our 


16 Are We a Christian Nation? 


Sunday school teachers, preachers, mis- 
sionaries, and evangelists come from 
homes in which daily family worship was 
practiced. 

The home makes the first lasting im- 
pressions on the child’s life. The world 
for him is the home. And, though he is 
surrounded by many, many perplexing 
things, impressions are made upon his 
plastic nature and susceptible mind. The 
training in the home will determine, in a 
large measure at least, the kind of life he 
will lead. Hence the importance of devel- 
oping the religious nature as the intel- 
lectual nature. 

Dr. E. B. Chappell says: “‘One of the 
anomalous facts in our modern life is that, 
while the Church is giving more attention 
than ever before to the religious education 
of the young, religious training in the 
home has fallen into a deplorable state of 
neglect.’”’ A century ago a large propor- 
tion of the Christian homes in the United 


Our Nation’s Greatest Need 17 


States maintained family altars. The 
proportion of them that do so now is so 
small as to appear almost negligible. And 
with the family altar has gone also definite 
instruction. To find a father and mother 
who are endeavoring by a faithful and 
intelligent process of teaching to educate 
their children in religion is the exception 
and not the rule. 

The parents need to seek for a quicken- 
ing of their own spiritual life before they 
can place great emphasis in the religious 
training of their children and effectively 
maintain family worship. The decadence 
of family religion is appalling, and unless 
the homes of our great nation have better 
Christian nurture and the parents strive 
to make home what it should be, the great- 
est religious educational agency, the results 
must inevitably end disastrously. The 
child’s religious nature, like his intellectual 
nature, may become atrophied through 
neglect or may be developed into vigorous 

2 


18 Are We a Christian Nation? 


life and expression by proper nurture and 
exercise. 

Every father and mother should syste- 
matically study God’s Word together with 
the children and lead them in devotional 
exercises and daily fellowship in prayer 
with Christ. They must help them to fit 
themselves for the great task of real 
Christian life. The parents who maintain 
daily family devotion earnestly and sin- 
eerely discharge their obligations to their 
children. They train them wisely and 
successfully to become useful citizens of 
the government and loyal citizens of the 
kingdom of heaven. 


POLITICS AND PATRIOTISM 


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II 
POLITICS AND PATRIOTISM 


HILE patriotism is of God, 
heaven-born and all right, the 
decline in the life of cities, 

centuries, kingdoms, empires, and re- 
publics, their collapse and evanescence in 
all ages has been superinduced by political 
corruption. And while patriotism is 
beautiful, bright, lovely, and charming in 
every land and clime, politics is often 
Satan’s counterfeit for God’s patriotism. 
‘Patriotism is all right. It is ordained 
of God that we should be attached tothe 
places where we first saw the light of day 
and have battled with the elements of the 
material world and fought our way into 
manhood. The Grecian mother, handing 
the shield to her boy going away to war, 
would say, ‘My son, either come home on 
this or bring it with you.’ When killed in 


22 Are We a Christian Nation? 


battle, they always brought him home on 
his shield; when he fled away upon the 
battle field, he threw his shield to expedite 
his flight.” 

During the Revolutionary War a great 
man came over fromm England and struck 
the Colonies while they were framing their 
Constitution. He advocated property 
qualification for the right of suffrage and 
made a number of elaborate speeches in 
order to prove to the people that he was 
correct. In the finale he insisted that a 
man should be worth $300 in order to have 
a right to the elective franchise. Finally, 
when he had finished all his prolific and 
profoundly elaborate discourse, Patrick 
Henry, then a young lawyer, consented to 
answer him. Arising, he observed: 
“‘Gentlemen, as our friend from over the 
great waters has detained you with con- 
siderable prolixity of speech, I promise you 
brevity; so I will not consume time con- 
sidering his arguments, but simply give 


Politics and Patriotism 23 


you an illustration. Your neighbor has a 
fair education, is a high-toned gentleman, 
a respectable church member, and well 
disposed every way, paying his just debts 
faithfully; his word is as good as his bond, 
but he is not worth anything financially. 
Therefore, according to the doctrine 
advocated by the gentleman, we cannot 
afford to let him vote. Another neighbor 
is much such a man as the first, a high- 
toned gentleman and a good citizen. 
There is no important difference between 
him and the other neighbor, except that 
he owns a jackass valued at $300. Con- 
sequently, according to the property quali- 
fication, he is entitled to the elective fran- 
chise; he can go to the polls and vote. 
Now, gentlemen, examine the case. The 
two men are the same in all respects, ex- 
cept that one owns a jackass and the other 
does not. The caseis plain, and vou can all 
see and solve its own problem: Shall jack- 
asses vote, or men?”’ 


24 Are We a Christian Nation? 


They all saw the point, decided that men 
should do the voting, with or without the 
jackass; so property qualification fell to the 
ground. In the exercise of the elective 
franchise we should consider nothing but 
the man and vote for him simply on his 
personal merit. 

Corrupt politics inevitably transforms 
the nation into a volcano which has to 
explode. Such has been the case with all 
the nations of bygone ages. In their 
infancy they were obliged to be patriotic, 
otherwise they would have been obliter- 
ated from the face of the earth; but when 
they became strong and _ prosperous, 
politics prevailed over patriotism, then 
snowed it under and froze it to death; 
things got worse and worse, until the 
voleano exploded, bursting everything to 
pieces. 

“In the Revolution of 1789 France 
literally exploded and burned like a flam- 
ing voleano. Meanwhile the infidel philos- 


Politics and Patriotism 25 


ophers got the government into their 
‘hands and ruled with a rod of iron, 
abolishing the Sabbath and appointing 
every tenth day for recreation and rest. 
They closed all the churches, except when 
used for lecture rooms and playhouses. 
They did their best to banish the Bible 
from the world; they sent men to all the 
graveyards, there to put up stones super- 
scribed, ‘Death Is an Eternal Sleep.’”’ 

When the Romans were marching their 
armies to the ends of the earth, conquering 
all nations, at one time they fought the 
Volscians for fifty years. The latter 
signally defeated them, casting an ominous 
gloom over the hope and destiny of Rome. 
For once the Romans thought that they 
were doomed to destruction. But eventu- 
ally a great man appeared at the head of 
the Roman armies and conquered the 
enemy. Under his leadership the Romans 
finally triumphed, utterly subduing the 
Volscians. 


26 Are We a Christian Nation? 


In process of time the anti-Coriolanians 
got the majority; then they, fearing his 
political influence, banished him for life— 
that is, turned on him the ostracism which 
was not uncommon at that time. When 
the lictor brought him the senatorial edict 
banishing him for life, instead of going into 
exile, he went to Volscia. He found the 
Senate in full session, unutterably aston- 
ished to see their old enemy come among 
them. Then he showed them the senato- 
rial edict of his banishment for life and said 
to them: “‘ Now that my ungrateful coun- 
trymen, after I have delivered them from 
their enemies, are not willing to let me live 
among them, but have banished me into 
perpetual exile, I have come among you, 
to spend the remnant of my life with you. 
Under my leadership the Romans defeated 
you upon the battle field, but with my 
leadership you can whip them.”’ Then he 
was solemnly sworn in by the Senate. 

The news reached Rome on the wings of 


Politics and Patriotism 27 


the wind: “All Volscia is up in arms and 
Coriolanus at their head.” Fast as the 
tidings reach the people panic strikes them. 
The nation is thunderstruck and appalled, 
for they have no man willing to meet 
Coriolanus on the battle field. The Senate 
convenes, repeals the edict of banishment, 
and sends a delegation of their oldest men 
to beg Coriolanus’s pardon. But all in 
vain. He says: “‘I have sworn to the 
Volscians, and I cannot go back. Rome 
must go down in blood.’’ They then send 
a delegation of their priests, to beg him 
in the name of their gods to desist from the 
vengeance which he has vowed against 
his ungrateful country. Then, as a last 
resort, they appeal to Vituria his mother, 
and Volumnia his wife, to come to the 
relief of the threatened, panic-stricken 
land. 

Sure enough, they are moved by their 
transcendent love for their country. 
Taking his little boy by the hand, they 


28 Are We a Christian Nation? 


hasten to meet their offended son and hus- 
band. Falling at his feet, they implore him 
to pardon his ungrateful country and to lead 
away his Volscian army. Again he says: 
“Rome has dishonored that son who saved 
her from all her enemies. In her vile in- 
gratitude she has banished him for life; 
therefore I will have vengeance. She shall 
come down in blood and fire.””’ Then his 
mother answers: “‘ You may lead this army 
into Rome, but you lead it over my body, 
crushed by the iron-shod hoof and every 
chariot wheel that shall enter the gate of 
Rome. Farewell, my son. I go to block- 
ade the gate with my body. You and the 
Volscian army may enter there, but you 
will crush under your feet the body of 
your dear mother.” 

Coriolanus knows that his mother will 
do as she says; so he lifts his sword high 
in the air and shouts aloud: “‘O my coun- 
try, my country, you have conquered me 
by the efficacious prayers of my mother!” 


Politics and Patriotism 29 


Patriotism is divinely innate in the 
human soul. Itis peculiar to every nation, 
regardless of the character of the country. 
“The Arab, in his tent, believes that God 
made a sandy desert, while angels were 
used to make the hills and flowery vales. 
The Eskimo, shivering in his icy igloo, is 
delighted ever and anon to take a trip in 
his dog sled, believing his country the 
best in the world.” 

There is just guaranty against that 
political corruption which has proved the 
sepulcher of all the kingdoms that have 
flourished on the earth in bygone ages. 
In turn those kingdoms held their places 
at the front of the world; but erelong, 
fortune’s wheel revolving aginst them, 
they went down to take their places in 
the charnel house of their predecessors. 

Our only available fortification against 
the dismal doom of our predecessors is 
divine intervention, which takes away 
prejudice, lust, and ambition. 


30 Are We a Christian Nation? 


“‘Egypt was the first to come to the 
front and to rule the world, in the days of 
the Pharaohs. Walk with me amid the 
ruins of Memphis and the catacombs of 
Sakkarah and through the museum of an- 
tiquities. You will see the mournful 
souvenirs of their mighty works, while 
they are numbered with the nations before 
the flood. 

“Phoenicia was the second nation to 
stand at the front of the world, during the 
palmy days of Tyre and Sidon, which now 
mournfully verify the awful prophecies of 
Ezekiel and Isaiah in reference to their 
impending doom: ‘Tyre shall become a 
rock on which the fisherman will dry his 
net.’ Though those cities were mistresses 
of the seas and umpires of the commercial 
world, they have long been forsaken, all 
sailing by, never stopping.” 

If our great republic is to be saved, our 
people should stand together and unite 
our forces against the powers of darkness 


Politics and Patriotism 31 


for the world’s evangelization. As all the 
nations of bygone ages which have per- 
ished and gone to oblivion reached their 
ruin through political corruption, it be- 
hooves us all to watch and pray and see 
that we are truly patriotic, conserving 
our great country with an eye single to the 
glory of God and diligently watching lest 
we become sidetracked by political strat- 
egy. 


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{II 


CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILI- 
ZATION 


URELY we should be proud of the 
land we fondly call our own and 
should be devoutly thankful to God 

for it. The possession of a truly grateful 
spirit will save us from the danger of 
possession of great riches. ‘“‘When old 
Rome was simple in her life, heroic, 
virtuous, and just, her foundations were 
firm and her government was honored. 
But when Rome became rich, her wealth 
surfeited her spirit and took tone out of 
her nerves, for it led her in the ways of 
the voluptuous, sapped the foundations 
of her strength, and made her a prey to the 
Northern hordes. There is ever the danger 
of like conditions of manners and morals 
following the possession of much wealth; 
so that while our resources are limitless, let 


36 Are We a Christian Nation? 


us as a people rise above them to high 
living.” 

Our forefathers sought on this continent 
home and habitation for themselves and 
their posterity. In defense of their rights 
as free men, and in revolt against mon- 
archial rule and religious restrictions, they 
had crossed the seas from Europe to a 
savage land, were denounced as rebels and 
outlaws, and after crushing hardships at- 
tained a comparative measure of inde- 
pendence and safety. They came to this 
virgin continent in order that they might 
enjoy the blessings that sprang into being 
with the foundation of our great govern- 
ment, and here they found freedom of 
thought and liberty of action. 

“The law of the land is our written 
chart, but the law of any land finds its 
highest expression when interpreted in the 
spirit of Christianity. Civilization has fol- 
lowed the course of the Star of Bethlehem, 
and civilization must find its highest ex- 


Christianity and Civilization 37 


pression in the Master’s command: ‘Love 
thy neighbor as thyself.’”’ 

The world needs, as never before, the 
moral ideal and the moral power of 
Christianity. In the midst of shifting 
political, social, and business ideals, the 
world needs firmness—namely, the sta- 
bilizing spirit of Christianity. Every ideal 
except the Christian ideal is defective. 

No one can study the movement of 
modern civilization and not realize that 
Christianity is the only basis for the hope of 
civilization in the growth of popular self- 
government. 

“Our civilization cannot survive ma- 
terially unless it be redeemed spiritually. 
It can be saved only by becoming per- 
meated with the spirit of Christ and being 
made free and happy by the practices 
which spring out of that spirit. Only thus 
can discontent be driven out and all 
shadows lifted from the road ahead. Here 
is the challenge to our Churches, to our 


38 Are We a Christian Nation? 


political organizations, and to our capi- 
talists—to every one who fears God or loves 
his country. Shall we not all earnestly 
codperate to bring in the new day?”’ 

Christianity is absolutely needed by all 
the world, and all mankind must wait for 
its satisfaction, for the completion of all 
its vague yearnings, of its half-lights, of 
its hopes, and for the purging of its dross, 
until Christ is recognized as the light of all 
the world. 

The hope that after the war the world 
would move rapidly toward permanent 
peace and a well-ordered international life 
has been shattered. Growing unrest, 
political intrigues, physical distress and 
suffering, a disordered economic life, in- 
creasing distrust, suspicions, and hatreds 
—all point to great disaster. If the drift 
be allowed to continue in the present 
direction, new wars will cripple still further 
our civilization and may even carry it into 
eclipse for years. 


Christiamtty and Civilization 39 


“The failure of diplomatic and financial 
efforts to bring about a satisfactory settle- 
ment constitutes a direct challenge to 
Christianity.’”’ Righteousness, justice, and 
good will are the foundation of perpetual 
happiness. The problem is essentially a 
spiritual one and comes distinctly within 
the scope of Christianity. 

Civilization will never attain its highest 
expression—permeated by the spirit of 
Christianity—at a bound, but only by the 
steady march of millions of intelligent, 
noble-minded, and consecrated men and 
women who daily take the next step in the 
building of an orderly, friendly, and 
cooperative spirit. 

In the midst of a mighty stir has 
Christianity a new opportunity? Un- 
doubtedly so. When the fallow ground is 
broken up, whether in frost or drought, by 
dynamite or plowshare, then is the time 
to arrange for the planting of the seed. 
The world’s heart and mind are open. A 


40 Are We a Christian Nation? 


new, a better, a higher, and a holier way 
would be welcomed now by war-torn hu- 
manity. Suffering and uncertainty cause 
men tocry out forhelp. Their very natures 
under stress begin to grope in the realm of 
the spirit, and their native yearning for 
substantial hope leads them to seek the 
eternal. “It is the sublime old story told 
in the Hebrew Scriptures: Israel’s defeats 
and captivities, backslidings and spiritual 
abominations brought the nation to hu- 
mility and made ready for the voice of the 
prophet.” There is never a season of 
greater opportunity for the propagation 
of Christian ideals than when the well- 
springs of the world are getting dry. If 
the rock is smitten, the thirsty multitudes 
will crowd the flowing, refreshing spring. 
“‘Now is the time for a new proclamation 
of the glories of the Prince of Peace; for a 
more patient, persistent, powerful utter- 
ance of the fact of the divine sacrifice.” 
Christianity has a wide-open opportunity 


Christianity and Civilization 41 


to meet the wants and yearnings of man- 
kind. It is not simply civilization that the 
world wants, but civilization with an 
awakened and enlightened conscience— 
graft superseded by honesty, the red tooth 
by the Golden Rule, the devil by Jesus 
Christ. 


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THE UNITED STATES MUST LEAD 
THE WORLD TOWARD PER- 
MANENT PEACE 








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IV 


THE UNITED STATES MUST LEAD 
THE WORLD TOWARD PER- 
MANENT PEACE 


INCE nothing is ever permanently 
settled by the sword, the only thing 
which can prevent the catastrophe 

of another great World War is that there 
should be in every case a genuine attempt 
to settle disputes between nations by the 
just decision of an impartial authority 
before resort is had to force. 

Europe has drifted helplessly and pre- 
ceptibily toward future war. The one 
thing which might have averted this was 
the close agreement and confident codpera- 
tion of the leading nations. Future liber- 
ties of Europe depend upon regulating dis- 
putes between nations by justice of law, 
maintaining the sanctity of treaties. 

The League of Nations was created to be 


46 Are We a Christian Nation? 


the instrument of this policy. But the 
people of the United States are not going 
to join any organization which would drag 
us into the political entanglements of 
Europe. | 

While there is not a human being in the 
United States, either in Congress or at 
home, who knows the policy of the United 
States in regard to permanent world peace, 
unless an organization to settle disputes 
between nations is established, there will 
be renewed competition in armaments, 
and preparations for new wars which will 
make the ruin of civilization complete. 

“By the formal ratification on August 
17, 1928, of the naval limitation treaties 
entered into by the United States, Eng- 
land, France, Japan, and Italy the re- 
duction of naval armaments will begin at 
once, and in a comparatively short time 
these powers will have only those vessels 
that are deemed necessary for use in peace. 
The agreement involves the ‘scrapping’ of 


The United States Must Lead 47 


thousands of tons of fighting vessels and a 
limitation upon the building of new vessels 
that really means a definite step toward 
the maintenance of world-wide peace. 
One of the most inspiring lessons to be 
learned from the ratification of these treat- 
ies is that definite progress toward peace 
can be made by international agreement.”’ 

A confederation of all mankind must 
ultimately be established to maintain 
peace throughout the world. The power 
to prepare for and make war must be with- 
drawn. An end to the organization of war 
is absolutely necessary, or else human 
affairs face inevitable disintegration, con- 
fusion, decay, and catastrophe. 

National aggrandizement and regard for 
prosperity without recognition of the 
rights of other nations have been the 
dominant traits which have obstructed 
possibilities of the existence of permanent 
peace and world confederation. 

God seems to have chosen a nation to be 


48 Are We a Christian Nation? 


the channel of blessing to all mankind and 
the one that is to be prominent in the 
colossal world movements of the future. 
The United States of America just now is 
the first instance of a federating process 
which will ultimately extend to the whole 
universe. Whether we like it or not, our 
lot is cast in with the other nations to a 
very considerable extent. 

America’s entry into the war was 
prompted by idealism and sentiment for 
France, but also by plain common sense 
business and for the right. For high 
motives to be effective in results they must 
be founded on sound economics. 

The situation in Europe at this time 
concerns America as profoundly as did the 
affairs of 1914 to 1917, though less tragical- 
ly. Our continued well-being depends 
largely upon the settlement of Europe’s 
affairs and calls for the same common sense 
and business judgment as actuated Amer- 
ica in joining the war. 


The United States Must Lead 49 


If we stand aloof from what we common- 
ly call this ‘‘European mess” when it is 
apparent that the balance cannot be 
redressed without our help, then why did 
we come into the war in 1917? Were we 
mistaken then? Were the government and 
the people wrong in the almost unanimous 
decision to act? We answer, No. No 
such disgraceful verdict upon this case will 
be rendered by the American people. We 
have extended a helping hand, and we will 
continue to press on to a successful issue; 
for we know that if the present problem is 
not solved, and quickly and justly solved, 
then truly America will have fought in 
the war in vain. 

The United States was forced into the 
war, after three years of deliberation, by 
what we believed to be our own best in- 
terests, backed by moral indignation. 
And now these same forces are calling on 
us to aid in redressing the balance of the 
world. 

4 


50 Are We a Christian Nation? 


Can this be accomplished without the 
United States? The logic of events is 
stronger than any man’s wishes, and the 
vital concerns of a country take precedence 
over the personal preference of either its 
statesmen or its individual citizens. 

Because of the things we fought for, 
because of the things we hoped for, because 
of the things our men died for—whether 
we like it or not, our lot now is cast in with 
the other nations to a very considerable 
extent. This whole question rises far 
above the clamor and strife of partisan 
politics, and whosoever seeks to use it for 
political advantage sullies the memory of 
our honored dead. 

America is respected above all other 
nations in the world, and it must lead the 
way in the establishment of permanent 
peace in a war-torn world. 

The great World War has doubtless 
altered the destiny of mankind for genera- 
tions—yea, for centuries to come. It 


The United States Must Lead 51 


tested the courage, the determination, the 
loyalty, and the readiness to sacrifice of all 
those who participated in it. War is a 
terrible business at best; it is a rending 
shattering, ruinous, and nefarious business. 

The United States must take its place 
and do its share toward promoting, 
establishing, and preserving world peace, 
while not making compulsory its partici- 
pation in European wars, if any such are, 
in the future, found unpreventable. 

Conditions in Europe are very trouble- 
some now, and nations are afraid of each 
other. Europe is disarming from sheer 
fear. Suspicions are aroused, jealousies 
are apparent, and even rank hate exists. 
Europe is now in a desperate condition. 
Fifteen million men have been killed, 
twenty million maimed and injured, and 
billions of dollars scattered. 

Never before has the whole world been 
swept by such a storm of unrest, per- 
plexity, and confusion. Civilization will 


52 Are We a Christian Nation? 


die materially unless redeemed spiritually. 
It can only be saved by becoming per- 
meated with the spirit of Christianity. 
The only way discontent can be driven 
out and all shadows lifted is by the use 
of practices which spring out of that spirit. 


AMERICA’S HOPE 


V 
AMERICA’S HOPE 


UR only hope is in the gospel of 

Jesus Christ. The only hope of 

happiness here and hereafter is in 
looking to “Jesus only.’”’ Christ is our 
star of hope. 

History shows that there are no people 
that the gospel cannot quicken. There are 
no continents or islands to be discovered. 
From Greenland to Tierra del Fuego the 
power of the gospel has been tested. The 
lowest races have been reached. No great- 
er obstacles can be encountered than have 
been overcome. The gospel has shown 
itself sufficient for every case. It has 
scored its triumphs on every field. 

“The gospel came after everything else 
had failed. They tried to strangle it in 
the manger, but it was not born to die. 
They sent out bloody men to behead it in 





56 Are We a Christian Nation? 


Bethlehem, but they failed. The devil 
tried to buy it in the wilderness, but it was 
not for sale. Culture sneered at it, but it 
kept right on. They tried to starve it out 
of the world, but it grew all the more. 
They tried to scourge it out of the world, 
but every blow hardened its muscles and 
strengthened its sinews. They tried to 
crucify it, but suddenly the cross sprang 
into an emblem of victory. They tried to 
bury it, but there was no room on land or 
sea for its grave. All down through the 
centuries they have misrepresented it, but 
it cagne to stay.” 

We are proud of America, with all its 
minerals, mines, quarries, cotton, wheat, 
corn, oats, barley, rye, forests, fruits, 
cattle, dairy products, sheep and wool, 
horses, mules, hogs, and fisheries; with all 
its mines of coal, iron, gold, silver, copper, 
zine, and all the wells of petroleum and 
natural gas; for all the industries that 
‘make people great. In wealth and com- 


America’s Hope 57 


merce we are equal to the greatest nation 
of the earth, if we are not the greatest of 
all the nations. 

With our blessings go great responsibili- 
ties. God will never treat the ten-talent 
nation the same as he will the one-talent 
nation. God expects more of America 
than he does of Costa Rica. We shall not 
always have the smile of his favor unless 
our talents are put to the Master’s use. 

“There is a verse in the Bible which 
says: ‘The silver is mine, and the gold is 
mine, saith Jehovah of hosts.’ (Haggai 
li. 8). That is an economic statement 
which the human race has never taken 
seriously, not even Christian disciples. It 
is not a theological statement; it is eco- 
nomic. And if it were obeyed as an 
economic law, it would change the pages 
of history as no other one thing obeyed 
by mankind. 

“Practically this is the way America 
disobeys this economic law of the use of 


58 Are We a Christian Nation? 


God’s wealth. According to the cold 
financial figures of Uncle Sam’s bookkeep- 
er in the Internal Revenue office, America 
spends annually the following sums of 
God’s gold and silver for these items which 
the language of the Internal Revenue calls 
‘luxuries’ or ‘non-essentials’: For face 
powder, cosmetics, and perfumes, $750,- 
000,000; for cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, 
and snuff, $2,110,000,000; for jewelry, 
$500,000,000; for joy rides, movies, and 
races, $3,000,000,000; for furs, $850,000,- 
000; for chewing gum, $50,000,000; for 
ice cream, $250,000,000; for luxurious 
service, $3,000,000,000; and other items, 
making a round total of $22,000,000,000 
spent by America for what Uncle Sam 
himself, the financial custodian of the 
pocketbook of America, calls luxuries.”’ 
Columbia has been flirting a little with 
money, but I think she will shortly get 
her eyes open to the danger of such 


America’s Hope 59 


flirtation and learn that it is beneath her 
queenly dignity to do so. 

Yes, when Columbia realizes that there 
should be a God not only in her Constitu- 
tion, but a God in every institution in her 
domain, and in every heart among her 
people, then she will have learned the 
golden secret of all true development. So 
long as Israel recognized Jehovah, the 
nation prospered. She was the invincible 
power of the world. But when she 
wandered away from God, she was soon 
scattered to the four winds of the earth. 

When Germany, in her splendor, forgot 
God, she fell. The saddest thing that 
could happen to this country would be to 
rob the people of their faith in God. Let 
us hear Webster: “If we abide by the 
principles taught in the Bible, our country 
will go on prospering; but if we neglect its 
instructions and authority, no man can 
tell how soon a catastrophe may over- 


60 Are We a Christian Nation? 


come us and bury all our glory in pro- 
found obscurity.” 

The Commissioner of Education, Hon. 
John J. Tigert, speaking of American 
Education Week, said: ‘‘ From the national 
standpoint we consider that certain phases 
need special emphasis at this time, in- 
cluding Americanization, citizenship, pa- 
triotism, the need of teachers and schools, 
the problem of illiteracy, equality of 
educational opportunity, and hygiene and 
physical education.” 

Education alone is a branchless tree or 
a fruitless vine. You could stick a public 
school and a university in the middle of 
every square in America, and you will 
never keep America from decaying by 
mere intellectual education. Let us stick 
to the slogan, “‘ A godly nation cannot fail.” 
For God and for country let us have educa- 
tion in the home, education in the school, 
and education in the church. Give God 
first place in the home, in the school, and 


America’s Hope 61 


in the church, and our noble American 
boys and girls will become useful citizens 
of the government and loyal citizens of the 
kingdom of heaven. 

Can that be properly called education 
which neglects the most important part 
of man’s nature? Education that ignores 
the spiritual side of men’s nature is partial 
education. The man who is half educated 
is to be dreaded and may be more danger- 
ous than if he were not educated at all. 
No matter how perfect he is physically 
and keen intellectually, if he has no moral 

motives, he is not safe in any community. 
- Partial education may be worse than none 
at all. 

It is not simply civilization America 
wants, but civilization with enlightened 
conscience; not simply railroads and 
steamships and gigantic corporations, but 
gigantic corporations and steamships and 
railroads free from graft and taint of every 
kind. 


62 Are We a Christian Nation? 


‘Would I drive out civilization? No. 
I would reform it. I would drive out 
graft and put in honesty. I would drive 
out the red tooth and put in the Golden 
Rule. I would drive out the devil and put 
in Jesus Christ.” 

-The Governors of thirteen Southern 
States have appointed a Southern Law 
and Order Commission. The threefold 
purpose of this Commission is: 

1. To draft a model bill for the preven- 
tion of. lynching. 3 

2. To secure its passage in each South- 
ern State Legislature. 

3. To create public conscience for law 
and order by a campaign of publicity. 

We commend this Southern Law and 
Order League and trust that its passage 
will be secured in each legislature. We 
need such a law, and the enforcement of 
this and other laws already in effect. 

But men never have and never will be 
reformed by legislation. As long as time 


America’s Hope 63 


exists, man without necessity or honor will 
seek some plan whereby he may execute 
a violation of the law. It is the province 
of constitutions and laws to restrain evil, 
but not toreform. Whether constitutional 
or statutory, law lacks the one essential 
element required in the case—namely, the 
power to purify. That power is not within 
the province of law. ‘By the deeds of the 
law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.”’ 
“For what the law could not do, in that it 
was weak, God, sending his own Son, in 
the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin 
in the flesh.” ‘“‘There is nothing re- 
formatory in punishment; else every 
criminal in our penitentiaries would be a 
virtuous citizen and every soul in hell 
would become a saint. Something must 
be added to effectuate the desired result.”’ 
We recently saw an article by James J. 
Davis, Secretary of Labor, as follows: 
“Two hundred and fifty thousand 
American babies are snatched by death 


64 Are We a Christian Nation? 


from their mothers’ breasts every year 
before they have had time to open their 
eyes. 

“Half a million children, so-called 
defective and delinquents, are growing 
up almost totally neglected. 

“Thirty million American children of 
school age, even if they can win the op- 
portunity for education, face in our schools 
a false learning, as education will not fit 
more than one in ten of them for the 
places they must occupy in life. 

“‘But more portentous yet looms the 
problem of the child in industry. Ap- 
proximately a million and a half American 
boys and girls of school age are to-day 
pressed to labor before their time, 
doomed to the drudgery of mine and mill 
and factory by economic necessity. They 
face hopeless futures. 

“‘Here, if anywhere, we face a real 
danger to the republic. Not in the gospel 
of the peddler of political nostrums is our 


America’s Hope 65 


peril; but here, where citizens of the future 
are broken, mentally, morally, physically, 
by misled industrial management, is the 
evil which must be uprooted if America is 
to prevail.” 

As a great nation we have nothing to 
fear from without, but within there are 
growing evils. And those evils must be 
uprooted and banished, or our perpetuity 
will be a thing of uncertainty. 

“Columbia looks from sea to sea and thrills with 
joy to know, 

Her myriad sons, as one, would leap to shield her 
from the foe.” 

Many cancers are found on our body 
politic. Before the banishment of saloons 
the liquor traffic was the most gigantic 
tragedy in America. And unless we utter- 
ly destroy the stills of “‘bootleggers”’ and 
prevent “blind tigers’ from operating 
their illicit traffic, prohibition will be a 
farce. 

Where you find “blind tigers” you will 

5 


66 Are We a Christian Nation? 


find a blind mayor, a blind council, and a 
blind sheriff; everything is blind. You 
ean’t run them without having everything 
blind. 

We have in theory abolished the ‘“‘red- 
light district.’’ White slavery is an infer- 
nal evil. According to the Law and 
Order League, there are sixty-eight thou- 
sand women leading a nameless existence 
in the city of Chicago alone. The demand 
of brutish passion ordains that the lives of 
five thousand young girls be laid upon the 
altar of lust every year—that five thou- 
sand young innocents be led forth to 
slaughter annually! 

If parents will continue to shut their 
eyes to this cancer that is feeding on the 
flower of our nation, they may expect their 
daughters to be kidnapped, lost, or mys- 
teriously missing! 

Another internal cancer is Sunday dese- 
cration. Sunday is the embankment 
which God has built against which the 


America’s Hope 67 


waves of care and sorrow, which for six 
days have been rolling over the heads and 
hearts of anxious men and weary women, 
may break and scatter themselves in 
“beautiful spray and harmless foam.” 
Bring your voices, your pens, your pulpits, 
and your printing presses into the Lord’s 
artillery corps for the defense of His holy 
day. 

Many other evils exist, including un- 
holy monopolies that threaten America’s 
welfare. | 

Rome had the same opportunity that 
we have in this age, but she ignored the 
very things that are now threatening 
Columbia’s future. Hence the perils with 
which Columbia is beset must be recog- 
nized, and they must be abolished if 
she is to go marching on as “Queen of the 
Nations.” 

“Tf anything is going to save our 
civilization, it is the American public 
school. It is the one unique, original con- 


68 Are We a Christian Nation? 


tribution that we have made to democracy. 
Other nations have had declarations of in- 
dependence. Other countries have had 
constitutions like the Magna Charta. 
Other countries have had parliaments and 
free ballot. But no country, so far as Iam 
able to read history, has initiated the 
policy of taxing all the citizens so that all 
the children shall be educated according 
to minimum standards set by the state. 
This is our single original contribution to 
the cause of democracy.” 

We are proud of our public school 
system, the grandest in the world. Yet 
for every dollar we spend for education 
we spend twenty-one for ‘‘nonessentials.”’ 
And until recently, for every dollar we 
spent for education we spent twenty-five 
for drink! 

Up to the present time republican in- 
stitutions have never flourished in any 
land where the teaching of Christ has not 
preceded them to set up standards of 


America’s Hope 69 


Christian living and lay the foundations in 
Christian ethics and character. 

“Bring up the army of American citizen- 
ship; bring up the purity of Columbia’s 
institutions; bring up the standard of man- 
hood and womanhood, bring up the church 
and school, lodge and labor, and every- 
body and everything that stands for God, 
and home, and native land!” 

Jesus Christ may be slowly but surely 
transforming the political, industrial, so- 
cial, and religious life of the race. He came 
to redeem the world, and he will complete 
the task. Our hope is in his gospel. 


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ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION? 


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VI 
ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION? 


HE United States is often men- 
: tioned as one of the Christian 
nations of the world. We are 
Christian in the sense that the Christian 
religion is the dominant religion of 
America. We are Christians in the 
sense that our social and commercial 
and moral ideals are mainly Christian. 
It is true, as Whitter sang: 


**O Lord and Master of us all, 
Whate’er our name or sign, 
We own thy sway, we hear thy call, 
We test our lives by thine.”’ 


But it is not true that as a nation we live 
up to these high ideals. While we sub- 
scribe to the teaching of Jesus on the sub- 
ject of marital fidelity, our courts are 
crowded with divorce cases. While we 
believe in the doctrine of the fatherhood 


14 Are We a Christian Nation? 


of God and the brotherhood of man, 
industrial strife and class hatred constant- 
ly menace the machinery of commerce and 
of government and threaten the stability 
of our social and industrial institutions. 
While we believe in the universality of the © 
atonement and accept the responsibility for 
preaching the gospel to the whole world, 
vast stretches of America remain unevan- 
gelized. While we believe in the humani- 
tarian principles of Christianity, 


“‘TIs it well that while we range with science, 
glorying the time, 

City children soak and blacken soul and sense in 
city slime? 


There among the glooming alleys progress halts 
with palsied feet, 

Crime and hunger cast our maidens by the 
thousand in the street; 


There the master scrimps his haggard seamstress 
of her daily bread, 

There a single sordid attic holds the living and 
the dead; 


Are We a Christian Nation? 15 


There the smoldering fire of fever creeps across 
the rotted floor 

And the crowded couch of incest in the warrens 
of the poor.” 


We have destroyed the saloon; we have 
in theory abolished the “red-light’”’ dis- 
trict; we have taken a brave stand for 
decency and integrity in politics; now let 
us see to it that what we have abolished 
is replaced by a positive program of 
Christianization which shall preach the 
love of Christ to all our people and exem- 
plify that love in the lives of his disciples. 

God the Father is the source of all 
authority in civil government. Jesus 
Christ, the Son, is the divinely appointed 
ruler of nations. Submission to his rule is 
the only guaranty of a nation’s perpe- 
tuity. The nation that refuses homage to 
the Lord’s Anointed will be broken by his 
ironrod. (Ps.2.) Thisis the plain teach- 
ing of Scripture. A national recognition 
of Christ the King is imperative, and it is 


76 Are We a Christian Nation? 


equally imperative that every Christian 
take an active part to put Christianity on 
an undeniably legal basis in our national 
life. 

We are proud of our institutions that 
are pervaded by the spirit of Christianity. 
And we have a right to be proud of them. 
But there is this strange anomaly: While 
we wish to be classed as a “Christian”’ 
nation, we have, nevertheless, up to the 
present moment, failed to make any ade- 
quate recognition of God, Christ, or the 
Bible in our Constitution. 

“Some Christians regard this omission 
as an oversight on the part of the framers 
of the constitution and contend that it is 
there by plainest implication. Other 
Christians, more familiar with the history 
of this wonderful document, are of the 
opinion that the omission was a part of the 
design of the formulators. In either case, 
the fact remains that no such acknowledg- 


Are We a Christian Nation? ify 


ment is made. And whichever of the two 
views any Christian may hold, it is hard 
to understand what possible objection a 
follower of the Lord Jesus Christ could 
make to a national recognition of the 
claims that Christ himself makes. If the 
constitution 7s Christian by plainest im- 
plication, it would do no violence to any 
conscience to state the fact specifically. 
If it is not Christian, it ought to be. 

“The secular press and trade journals 
are calling attention to the fact that the 
constitution of the League of Nations was 
framed without any appeal to Almighty 
God for light and guidance in their 
counsels. (Manufacturers’ Record, August 
28, 1919.) History is evidence that the 
same course was taken in the Constitu- 
tional Convention.” 

According to statistics, it is obvious 
that the majority of the people living 
within our boundaries are non-Christian. 
A revival of religion and the recognition of 


GS: dade we Gieaeleuns WNiison? 


Christ in life and in the home are requisites. 
If many were not unbelievers, a campaign 
to recognize Jesus Christ would not be 
necessary. Jesus cannot be recognized in 
law until he has already been realized in 
life. Religion is vital to the home, to the 
State, and to the Church. Its practice 
measures the advance or decline of moral 
and spiritual life in a community. The 
downfall of home religion is one of the 
greatest imminent perils that threaten 
this magnificent country of ours. If true 
religion does not thrive in the homes of the 
land, any display that it may make else- 
where is not much more than camouflage. 
If religion does not transform the lives of 
the individuals in the home, its profession 
in public is pharisaical and hypocritical. 
Human selfishness and greed and fas- 
tidiousness need the modifying effects of 
the Master’s spirit to restrain and subdue. 
His spirit will produce cheer and comfort 
and gladness to reward those who labor 


Are We a Christian Nation? 19 


and seek to please and will develop that 
meek and submissive spirit that should 
become all Christians. 

Think! think! can there be any lasting 
peace without the “Prince of Peace’’? 
Can a nation be safe without the “ King of 
Kings”? In Jesus Christ, and in him alone, 
the hope of the world lies. It is no marvel 
that the Christians are ready to gather 
around his banner with a glowing en- 
thusiasm and prove their patriotism by 
allegiance to his sovereignty. He is 
acknowledged as King. Who else should 
be exalted among the people but he who 
has done wonderful things for his people? 
We need not wonder that the children of 
God delight to sing: “‘All hail the power of 
Jesus’s name! Crown him Lord of all.” 
He is our enthroned King in the majesty 
of his person, in the efficacy of his merit, 
in the completeness of his righteousness, 
in the sureness of his triumph, in the glory 
of his advent.”’ 


80 Are We a Christian Nation? 


The Church and State are both divine 
institutions. Both are under divine law 
and both prosper according as they obey 
the law. Since all authority, according 
to the Great Commission, belongs to Jesus 
Christ, he is truly the ruler of one as of the 
other. 

Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 12 how 
men and institutions are intended to work 
together in the divine plan. They are to 
cooperate as hands and feet with one mind 
working through both. But this common 
operation of the mind of Christ would not 
unite them any more than it unites hands 
and feet. It only enables them to do what 
they fail to do now, to work together in 
harmony for the uplift of the race. Codpe- 
ration through recognition by the Church 
and by the State of the authority and 
teachings of Jesus Christ is the divine 
plan; union of Church and State is a 
human plan, a plan which will soon be 
obsolete. 


Are We a Christian Nation? 81 


There are some who emphatically con- 
tend that a recognition of Jesus Christ in 
the national life and law would change 
our national policy of neutrality in religion. 
This is not so much an objection as a 
recommendation. Neutrality in religion is 
an impossibility either for the individual or 
the community or nation. Our statesmen 
who framed the constitution were fallible 
men, as amendments show, and in nothing 
more fallible than when they thought that 
Buddha and Mohammed and Jesus could 
be put on a common level and all alike 
ignored. President Wilson tried to keep 
this country out of the World War, but 
the war was too big and the world too 
small for him to succeed. Nineteen hun- 
dred years ago Jesus Christ won the title 
deeds of this world through victory on the 
cross, and ever since then he has been at 
war with Satan to get possession, and the 
issue is too big for any man or any com- 
munity or nation to be neutral. 

6 


82 Are We a Christian Nation? 


We have been accustomed to hear that 
prohibition interferes with personal liber- 
ty. The traffic policeman on the busy 
street also interferes with personal liberty. 
The recognition of the rule of Christ would 
interfere in about the same way. Itisa 
strange conclusion that the recognition of 
the rule of him who died to make man free 
would take freedom away, unless it is the 
freedom to do wrong. There is no freedom 
for men anywhere in the world, if Christ 
has not made them free. Why, then, 
should we not submit our lives, public and 
private, to him in whom alone men have 
found freedom? 

What we need as a nation is to havea 
Christian government; to bring our gov- 
ernment into line with divine government, 
securing obedience for conscience’ sake. 
“Tt is not simply civilization America 
wants, but civilization with an enlightened 
conscience; not simply railroads and 
steamships and gigantic corporations, 


Are We a Christian Nation? 83 


but gigantic corporations and steamships 
and railroads free from graft and taint 
of every kind. Better have the untutored 
savage than the civilized fiend. Better 
the wild, unexplored wilderness than the 
debauched palace of civilized shame! 
Better the cannibal of the South Seas than 
the civilized vulture of our cities. Better 
the innocent child of the Ganges, dropping 
into the open mouth of the monster, than 
the debauched child of the Mississippi 
thrust into the jaws of hell! ‘Would I 
drive out civilization? No, I would re- 
form it. I would drive out graft and put 
in honesty. I would drive out the red 
tooth and put in the Golden Rule. I 
would put out the devil and put in Jesus 
Christ.” 

Centuries ago this land of ours was 
God’s out-of-doors, flushed with lovers of 
freedom, inspired by nature’s wonders. 
Later laws were enacted for common pro- 
tection. In these laws were laid the truths 


84 Are We a Christian Nation? 


and principles of right and religious free- 
dom. 

These are the very body of the con- 
struction, and upon these the great nation 
has thrived to its present greatness. The 
resources of the United States are un- 
fathomable and wonderful. The mines, 
the rivers, the harvest fields, cattle and 
dairy products, the rich petroleum and 
natural gas are something of which the 
people must be proud. 

Without God and truth and Christian 
ideals, we have nothing to advance. You 
have the worker in his unsettled state of 
mind, the capitalist as he runs roughshod 
over the rights of the commonwealth, and 
the socialist with his peculiar and radical 
views of government. The result of the 
whole disintegration is that the nation asa 
whole is irreligious and is trampling under- 
foot the principles that would better con- 
ditions. 

Men never have been and never will be 


Are We a Christian Nation? 85 


reformed by legislation. As long as time 
exists, man without necessity or honor will 
seek some plan whereby he may execute 
a violation of the law. 

The way to obtain reform is through 
obedience to the principles of Christ and 
not through congressional assemblies. We 
have had too much philanthropy and not 
enough charity. We have had too much 
intellectuality and not enough spiritual 
growth. Under these conditions so-called 
Christian America has had moral stagna- 
tion. May we rapidly witness a positive 
program of Christianization. 


*. 


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